Here, There and Everywhere
by Majokai Yukiko
Summary: A series of KyoxHotaru drabbles I've done over the past 1 week.
1. Chapter 1

**Here, There and Everywhere**

20 themes response for Samurai Deeper Kyo

Pairing: Various.  
Rating: PG

**1. the places in between**

There are two souls in him, and Kyo can no longer tell what lies in between them. During that fight with Shinrei...was that concern for the girl his own or somebody else's?

**2. touching me, touching you**

Sometimes, when he saw his reflection in the water, he could almost imagine the fleck of blue in his crimson eyes. Kyo placed his fingers on his cheek. The Kyoushiro in the water did the same.

When he reached out for his reflection, there was only ripples though.

**3. real or not?**

How do you tell if something is real or not? Hotaru believes in flames. If it could burn, it must be real. Illusions couldn't catch fire, could they?

Kyo's lips tasted a little like blood. But they were cold. No matter how hard he tried, Hotaru could not make Kyo open his eyes, to show him eyes the color of flames.

Bon said Kyo was dead. But there was no fire, there was no heat. Therefore, it could not be real.

Right?

**4. secret garden**

This was their secret garden. The place that they used to be when they were children.

Now, Koutarou would burn the whole damned forest down if he could.

**5. pride over death**

This was shameful, Hishigi thought. He could only imagine how revolting he looked now, the left side of himself completely infested by the Medusa's eyes. But when he saw the look of desperation in Fubuki's eyes, the fear that he would once again be left alone, Hishigi decided that he would give up anything just to live, if that was what Fubuki wanted.

Even if it meant he had to give up his own pride.

**6. domestic**

Yukimura loves the smell of noon best.

"What's for lunch, Kosuke-chan?"

"Ah! It's bear stew, Yukimura-sama!" 

As it always is. The familiarity of the domestic.

**7. always second best**

How childish, Akari thought. It was amusing how Akira and Hotaru would fight over who would be second-best, after Kyo. Bontenmaru would not say anything, self-assured in that nonsensical confidence that he would not settle for anything other than the best.

Akari had a totally different aim altogether. He would not miss this time, he thought as he tightened his grip on his staff.

He did not want to be best or second best. He wanted to _marry_ the best.

**8. tug-of-war**

It was a mental tug-of-war between them, trying to see who could outlast the other.

Akira could not help but smirk when Tokito jumped off Bon's shoulders to walk on her own, obviously bristled by what he said.

The rope's on his side. For now.

**9. brother, thou art my brother**

Dinner among the Goyousei is always a messy affair. Saisei does not understand, of all the many pieces of roast meat they have on the table, Keikoku **has** to have the one that Shinrei had his chopsticks on first.

If anybody bother asking, Keikoku probably won't admit that he does so because that's what brothers do. 

Isn't it?

**10. fool's dream**

Owning the world was a fool's dream. It seemed so typical, so cliche, so _stupid_ to shed blood just to play God.

But Nobunaga never said he wasn't one.

**11. honor among enemies**

Shinrei saw the hand offered. But for a moment, he hesitated, carefully considering the implications of that gesture. Keikoku could have struck him easily while he was down. But here he was, holding out his hand patiently. Was that a smile he saw on his brother's face?

Just when Shinrei thought there might just be honour among enemies yet, the strike to his stomach told him otherwise.

Keikoku, you bastard...

**12. it's all about the money**

It was all about the money. Yuya could keep convincing herself of that. If only she would stop blushing whenever Kyo gave her _that smirk_.

**13. foggy days**

Everybody else in the Shiseiten hated foggy days. You couldn't travel, you couldn't rest because there was always a chance that you would be attacked. You could not even see the people you travel with.

Hotaru didn't mind foggy days though. Only that Kyo always tend to attempt to eat him alive more often on those days, when nobody could see those stolen kisses through the white.

**14. identity crisis**

"Oi, Keikoku!"

"My name is Hotaru!"

"Keikoku!"

"Hotaru!" 

"Keikoku!"

"Hotaru!"

"Hotaru!"

"Keikoku! Eh?"

Shinrei allowed himself a small smirk. It wasn't that hard to confuse his idiot of a half-brother after all.

**15. "something's wrong here..."**

"Something's wrong here..."

Bontenmaru rolled his eyes at the blond boy beside him.

"Sure there is, A-hou-tarou."

How else can you explain Kyo's decision to make the Shiseiten spend a night in a mushroom farm?

**16. rise or fall**

Shinrei grew up with an inflated sense of pride for who he was. Kingdoms rise and fall. But the Mibu, like the gods, are constant.

**17. sad but true**

So long as they could still fall in love with humans, they would always end up burying a lover younger than they were. A lover who would die before they do.

This is sad, Muramasa thought as he placed a hand on his wife's headstone. But nevertheless true.

**18. back the way things were**

Kyoushiro looked up at the hand offered.

"Let's go back." The smile on Sakuya's face was beautiful. "Let's go back to the way things were."

He reached out for that promise. Their hands never met.

**19. earthquake**

He was the wielder of earth. He could bury you alive if he wanted to. But why was it that he couldn't make the earth split apart wide enough to bury his pain?

**20. the end is the beginning**

When they cleared aside the rubble, not knowing whose corpse they should wish themselves finding, they found them both.

Their hands were held fast by the dried blood. There was a smile on both their faces.

They met as friends, lived as enemies, and died as friends again. Life certainly do have a morbid sense of poetry.


	2. Chapter 2

**Naming**

Rating: G  
Pairing: Kyo/Hotaru

Ever wondered how the name "Hotaru" came about? Here's my take.

A/N: This is different from the anime. Because the anime Kyo knew Hotaru before he left the clan, but the manga one probably didn't.

This is an amateur effort and does not intend to infringe the rights of Kamijyo-sensei and his associates.

---

"Why are you following me?"

That was the first thing that the Demon's Child asked him. Keikoku appeared at his doorstep one fine day, much to the surprise of the others in the house. Mibu Kyoushiro recognized him as the illegitimate son of somebody important, so did Sakuya. But Kyo had no idea. He left the clan when he was too young to remember anybody significant. Especially not a scrawny blond kid with a weapon too big for him.

Not like he was one to talk about oversized weapons. 

"You have a name, don't you?"

Keikoku shrugged and continued to keep pace, maintaining the two steps distance he had behind the other man.

Kyo rolled his eyes and continued walking. He was on his way back to the little house that Kyoushiro and Sakuya shared, his respite from the coming winter. What he did not expect was that the first snow would fall so early this year. 

The forest was dark; the first snowflakes of the year fell with a hissing sound, quickly covering the forest floor with white, the wind promising that more would come. He would have to find a place to rest for the night. Traveling in a heavy snowfall wasn't in any way his idea of a perfect night.

Shrugging his sword off, he settled down into a comfortable sitting position under a tree.

"You are going to freeze there," the blond man remarked with his usual monotone. Kyo smirked.

"No I won't." 

Keikoku cocked his head to the side, as if thinking of something, before taking his place beside Kyo under the tree. Kyo tensed, uncomfortable with having a stranger in his personal space. While this man may look and behave like a total moron, he was still a threat as long as Kyo knew nothing about him.

"What did you ask me just now?" He moved closer to the dark haired man, so close that their arms were pressing up against each other, skin against skin. That amount of contact was little comfort in such a winter night, but warmth was still warmth. While the Demon's Child may be arrogant enough to think that he wouldn't freeze in the snow, dressed in just a light yukata, Keikoku was not about to have his little vacation in the outside world cut short because his target was too much of an idiot to take care of himself.

"Your name. What's your name, since you already knew mine?"

Keikoku thought about it for a while, absentmindedly rubbing his fingers together to call out a small flame at the tip of his fingers. Kyo raised an eyebrow, and reached out to let his fingers dance with that little spark of heat.

"You give me one." He finally said.

Wh-WHAT? Kyo stared at the man incredulously, and then threw his head back and laughed. This was amusing! Surely he would have realized how wrong that sounded! Kyo could hardly count the number of times those girls in the brothels told him the exact same thing, selling him that crap about how he should name them because they belonged to him. Romantic, useless shit.

"You give me one," the blond man repeated, a slight tinge of irritation in his voice.

Kyo closed his eyes, thinking and enjoying the heat from the flame at his fingertips. The fire warmed, but the other man was careful to make sure that it doesn't burn. Kyo liked that, he decided. He liked the heat that slowly spread from his fingertips to the rest of his body.

"Hotaru," he replied finally. He opened his red eyes to meet pale yellow ones. Red and yellow. The color of fire.

"Your name is Hotaru."


	3. Chapter 3

**His Star**  
Rating: PG  
Pairing: Kyo/Hotaru

Kyo was not the sort of man to indulge in after-sex small talk. For one, his partners were usually too exhausted to manage anything more than an incoherent murmur after he was done with them.

If anybody were to quote this night to him in the future, he could always say it was the full moon. Full moons always make people do stupid things, think stupid things. Like how he now thought that it was strangely satisfying to have Hotaru lean against his chest, nuzzling his cheek against his skin with a soft purr at the back of his throat.

"Who gave you your name?" He heard himself ask, softly, as if a louder whisper would scare this fire nymph away from his arms. 

"You." Hotaru replied sleepily, half-wishing that Kyo would stop talking so that they could sleep, unwillingly to admit that lying in the other man's arms was...nice, for a lack of better words.

"No, your real name. Mibu Keikoku."

He was not going to ask how Kyo knew about his real identity. He was sure the rest of the Shiseiten didn't. Kyo was just Kyo. And frankly, he was too exhausted to care. Thanks to that...animal.

"Yun-yun gave it to me. He said it was the name of some..." A yawn. "Star. Or something. Something to do with fire...I think."

Hotaru's baritone slowly faded nothing. Kyo looked down at the precious bundle in his arms -who would have thought that Shiseiten's pyromaniac was the snuggling sort?- and allowed himself a small smile.

Tomorrow, he would leave the Shiseiten, for a duel he needed to fight. Tonight, he'd rest. In a cosy room in an inn, a full moon above, he would sleep with his star in his arms.


	4. Chapter 4

**Fear  
**Pairing: Kyo/Hotaru  
PG

Warning: Spoilers for Chapter 280 of the manga.

He never thought he could feel fear. He thought fear was the heat of the blood oozing from his wound when somebody pressed a blade against his skin. He thought fear was the rush of fire, his first summon, when he saw his mother die before his eyes. He thought fear was the biting burns from the flames of Sekigahara.

He thought fear was hot. 

But he was very wrong. Fear was the chill that seized his heart when he saw Kyo collapse into a pile of inanimate matter. Fear was the shiver running up his spine when Yun-yun's father (what's his name again?) said that Kyo was also infected. Fear was the sudden weakness in his legs when he realized that Kyo might slip through his fingers like dust just as Hishigi did.

There would not even be a corpse left that he could bury himself alive with. There would not even be a funeral pyre that he could light.

Fear would lead to panic. And panic was what made him want to rush forward into the middle of a fight to…to what? There was nothing he could do.

But nobody said fear was rational.

If…if anything was to happen, Hotaru knew he would never forgive Yuan and Akari for stopping him when they did.

Fear was not rational. Neither was love.


End file.
